Special Educational Needs & Disabilities

Special Educational Needs & Disabilities (SEND)

This information is for parents, careers and young people to understand how we manage Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) at The Forest School. The Children and Families Act (2014) introduced many changes to the special educational needs (SEN) system. This included:

A new Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) to replace the statement of special educational needs.

School action and school action plus to be replaced by a new school based category, 'SEN support'.

Need independent help or advice?

The Department for Education has funded a scheme to provide parents and/or young people with free impartial information, advice and support during the Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC) assessment and planning process.

Called Independent Support, this is provided by organisations who are independent of the local authority, but who work with and complement the local authority SEN arrangements and Parent Partnership Services. In Berkshire, this Independent Support is SENDIASS. You can find out more and contact them here.

Wokingham Borough Council have recently produced a new leaflet for parents of children who are transferring from primary to secondary school. It will be particularly useful for parents in years 5 & 6. You can find the leaflet on the local offer: